The Folks - Specialty Coffee Shop & Roaster in Lisbon

The Folks opened its first café in Baixa-Chiado in 2022 with “one counter, one machine, a lot of hope”. Four more followed in 2023, in Alfama, Santos, Sé and the Baixa, and the sixth opened by the river in Belém in 2026. It set out to serve “exceptional coffee and amazing food, every day”, and the brunch is made fresh and served all day, with no reservations.

Each café has its own character. The original has a marble counter, Alfama has a terrace under an old tree, The Folks Blue Street, in the Baixa, is framed by hand-painted azulejos, Santos is full of soft pillows, and Sé looks onto the cathedral with tram 28 passing the window. Dogs are welcome outside, and laptops before noon.

Since 2024 The Folks has roasted every bag itself in Lisbon, in small weekly batches, packed within three days of roasting. It buys lot by lot from exporters and importers it works with season after season, with coffees from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea, and profiles each one for filter, espresso or omni. The coffee poured in the cafés is the coffee sold in the bags. Every café works on Victoria Arduino machines, and the baristas calibrate on the same recipe each month.

The team has grown to more than 80 people. In 2026 The Folks appeared in The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops for the second year running, at number 34 in Europe and 88 in the world.